A Process for Identifying Objectives and Technological Forms in E-Democracy Initiatives

An increased number of public organizations engage in E-Democracy projects to improve their capability to communicate on democratically issues. Such efforts are often complex due to lack of experiences from earlier projects and the complex nature on the communication taking place. This article addresses two major problems identified from the E-Democracy literature and a conducted case study in a Norwegian local municipality. First the purposes for E-Democracy projects are often unclear and somewhat naïvely understood. To address this issue I draw upon the democracy model literature which identifies purposes for different democracies. Second it seems difficult to connect ICT to the identified objectives. As a response to this problem I suggest a theoretical lens bridging knowledge on democracy models, the genre of communication theory and IT artifacts. Based on these theories I propose a process for identifying objectives and technological forms in E-Democracy projects. I argue that the process can guide practice and research by identifying different objectives and opportunities in E-Democracy initiatives.